Wellness Nursing Jobs

[mctavishcat]

Hi Everyone,

I am in need of some advice. I am in my second term of nursing school and thinking about where to work after graduating. Most of my clinical experience has been on a Med Surg floor. I have seen a lot of GI and cardiovascular patients and can't help thinking that almost everything they are admitting for could have been preventable. I really, REALLY, want to work with people in their 20's and 30's teaching preventive health strategies. I am worried that I should have gone into wellness coaching instead of traditional nursing school. This worries me because this is my second career, and I don't want to have to start all over yet again. I have a BA in education, have taught all over the world, and gave everything up to go to nursing school. Does anyone if there is work for traditional nurses in wellness? I have tried to research it on the net but I'm terrible at research and overwhelmed by all the spam that pops up.

I will finish school with an LPN license, and am planning of transitioning into an RN program after gaining some work experience. I'm very interested in weight loss, nutrition, and sex education. I know that preventive health is growing in this country and I really want to be apart of it. So if anyone has experience in this field, or any information about wellness companies that hire nurses please let me know. Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!

Mctavistcat

[mtsteelhorse]

My advice is to get that RN license then add to it. Credentials look and ARE so much better with a nursing degree to back it. Like you I am extremely interested in wellness and working in that field. I've noticed you can do many certification programs via on-line and workshop seminars. If you add those to your nursing license you will be a great candidate for whatever you decide to do. You can add personal training, sports nutrition, diabetic educator and on and on. I'm thinking of adding some of those credentials to my RN title. If you limit yourself to a specific field without the nursing degree you may greatly limit possibilities in the future. I say this because you're already in the nursing program...go for it! Good luck and keep us posted.

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

Public/Community Health Nursing involves much of what you seem to be interested in doing, as does School Nursing. Continue advancing your education, as many of these specialties require an RN and possible a BSN depending on your area of the country. Good luck!

[heron21]

I am actually on the opposite path as you. I am currently in the health and fitness field and looking to attend nursing school for my BSN this year. I chose Exercise Science and wellness as a career at first b/c many diseases--incl top killers, heart disease and stroke--can be prevented. 8 yrs into my career, I realized that there are no "apparently healthy" people anymore and I felt limited as to what I can provide. So, nursing would expand my expertise.

Since you would have your RN, I would suggest looking into corporate health centers. Pharmaceutical companies and major companies tend to have a medical dept.( http://www.welcoa.com/). To boost your resume, you can also look into certifications, like Health Educator specialilst (http://nchec.org/) or Clinical Specialist from American College of Sports Medicine -- it's the industry gold standard (http://www.acsm.org/). Wellness Coaches are also being more popular in the fitnes industry. You can info on this at acsm.org as well.

This should get you started. Hey, maybe we'll cross paths one day! Good luck to you!